51-member newly constituted Congress Working Committee has only 3 Muslim leaders

New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday constituted Congress Working Committee (CWC) with 51 new and old members. The new CWC will have 23 members, 19 permanent invitees and 9 special invitees. The number of Muslim members in the 3 categories is only 3. Two are in special categories while the one is an invitee member.

It must be recalled that Rahul’s remark that Congress is a party of Muslims had raked up criticism from BJP. Later Congress president Rahul Gandhi had to clarify that Congress is the party of every poor of the country.

It must be noted that Muslim representation is not increased even in the CWC which is considered the most powerful committee.

Since the 2014 general elections, Muslim representation in the Lok Sabha and several state Assemblies has fallen drastically. There are only 23 representatives in the lower house of Parliament, the lowest-ever tally in the Lok Sabha.

The representation of Muslims in Parliament has never been proportionate to their population. The highest representation has been in 1980 when this was 49 members. It was 21 in 1952, 24 in 1957, 23 in 1962, 29 in 1967, 30 in 1971, 34 in 1977, 49 in 1980, 46 in 1984, 33 in 1989, 28 in 1991, 29 in 1996, 32 in 1999, 36 in 2004, 30 in 2009 – and 23 in the 2014 elections.